It was while walking towards the pomegranate fruits in the bush ahead of me, I noticed a female Koel quietly perched in an adjacent tree. Its stillness her my attention. My movements to find a vantage point to take photographs did not disturb her. Normally the female Koel is quieter than the males, making only a gentle call, like kik-kik-kik in quick succession, where as the male calls with 'a low Kuo rising in scale with each successive Kuo until it reaches a fever pitch at the seven or eight and breaking off abruptly'.
What is common between pomegranates and a Koel! A Koel is a berry feeder and searches for them in the garden.A birder told me that Koels turn to other fruits when they can't find berries.
Even birds do not find their food ! We live in a world of plenty for some and scarcity for some others. While I have the luxury of piped water at home, thousands have to depend on water ferried to them in water tankers in the city of Chennai. This is a contrast. Chennai has a long coast line! Why is the government hesitant to establish desalinating plants to give water for the city dwellers!
I remember the Koel since then as a symbol of the many birds under deprivation and feeling displaced of their natural feeding habits!
This is a consequence of affluence and mindless growth. The land areas in a city and farm lands in rural areas get converted into commercial use! So trees, shrubs vanish!
The ones who suffer when 'development' takes place is the weaken ones in society. Recently a play area used by children adjacent to a school was converted into a basket ball court for the benefit of others in a prestigious institution! It has become the way of planning-quietly displace weaker people for the benefits of the more powerful! Is this not the story of displacement of many tribal communities from their habitat because forest areas are converted to mine minerals or a dam has to be built! Who cares!
Oh! Koel, we would remember you and think of your habitat!
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